The increasing popularity of radio messaging has led to a need for increased transmission speed to handle the growing traffic. Increased transmission speed, however, presents new challenges to simulcast system design. As transmission speed increases, simulcast performance can be severely affected by "zero beating" (i.e., cancellation of two out-of-phase carriers of similar amplitude) and delay spread distortion.
Meticulous system design currently is required to optimize system performance for high speed simulcast transmission. Antenna heights and patterns, and transmission launch delays are some of the key ingredients for system optimization. A problem with such optimization is that it can lead to a complex and rigid system that is difficult to change, for example, to expand the system.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus that can accommodate high speed simulcast transmission without the need for extreme system optimization. A method and apparatus that can minimize the effect of zero beating and delay spread on simulcast performance is required.